With anonymous $25,000 gift, ALS-stricken songwriter’s music lives on

Essence Goldman greets Bernie Dalton at the Seton Medical Center in Daly City. Dalton was diagnosed with bulbar-onset ALS in 2016 and is now on life support. Photo: Guy Wathen, The Chronicle

Essence Goldman thought it was a scam.

Early last week, she received an anonymous email message from someone in the United Kingdom asking for her bank account and routing number. The unknown caller said they wanted to make a donation to support Bernie Dalton, the aspiring songwriter from Santa Cruz who since being diagnosed in 2016 with bulbar-onset ALS — the terminal motor-neuron illness better known as Lou Gehrig’s disease — had lost his ability to speak, move and sing.

Goldman, who was Dalton’s vocal coach before becoming his friend and musical advocate, had already established a pair of GoFundMe campaigns: one to fulfill his lifelong dream of having a finished album of his music to give his teenage daughter, Nicole, which was recorded last year by Goldman and the band Bernie & the Believers; and another to provide financial support for his long-term medical care.

But the unidentified British benefactor said they didn’t want to use GoFundMe because the site capped its contribution amounts and that they opposed its commission fee. Even though alarm bells were going off in her head, Goldman relented and passed along information for an old bank account that held a balance of $11.

The next morning she woke up and saw it contained $25,011.

“My jaw was on the floor,” Goldman says. “My mind was blown. I’ve been in absolute awe in the generosity of strangers and the power of music.”

Dalton’s remarkable story — and the bond he shares with Goldman — continues to inspire people around the world.

Since The Chronicle wrote about his story last May, Dalton’s condition has deteriorated.

Having developed trouble digesting food and breathing, the 50-year-old former surfer was moved from his care facility in Cupertino to Stanford University Medical Center, where he received a tracheostomy and new feeding tube. He is now on life support at Seton Medical Center in Daly City. His ability to communicate via a device called the EyeGaze has diminished as his eye muscles have started to weaken.

“There’s times where he won’t respond to people,” Goldman says. “There’s no way he couldn’t be depressed, but he lights up when he hears about this stuff happening. I really would like to write with him more. I think he has more songs in him.”

When Dalton received his initial diagnosis in April 2016, doctors gave him a prognosis of one to three years. Now, there is no timeline.

“He could live indefinitely like this, or he could get a cold and choke,” Goldman says. “He’s delicate.”

While Dalton continues to cope with his new reality, his friends and fans continue to carry his music out into the world. Last September, Goldman and the Believers joined a lineup of Bay Area musicians to perform a fundraiser featuring Dalton’s songs at the Sweetwater Music Hall in Mill Valley.

The proceeds from that show helped fund a fall tour of the East Coast last year that included a stop at NPR’s “Tiny Desk Concert” in Washington, D.C., that Dalton was able to join in from his hospital bed using FaceTime.

“The story of Bernie and the Believers is the most powerful I’ve ever come across at the Tiny Desk,” says NPR host Bob Boilen.

The BBC World Service also took an interest in Dalton’s story, producing a documentary that Goldman suspects led to the anonymous $25,000 donation.

There has been some serious feature film interest coming from the major studios, too.

“I can’t share details yet, but I hope to be able to in a few weeks,” Goldman says. “Bernie’s eyes light up just discussing it.”

Goldman, a native San Franciscan, singer-songwriter and mother of two who has devoted the past three years to supporting Dalton, is at the same time looking for ways to move on personally.

She wants to give more time to her own family while working on resuming her musical career. Goldman is writing a book and says she is deeply immersed in recording a new solo album, the follow-up to 2016’s “Black Wings.”

“It’s a new level for me,” she says.

In tandem, Goldman is making an album of early American heritage songs, covering tracks from before 1965. “I’ve fallen in love with the music of Hank Williams, Loretta Lynn, Bob Wills, Willie Nelson and many more songwriting pioneers,” she says.

Essence Goldman tunes a banjo while preparing to play a song for Bernie Dalton during a visit to his room at the Seton Medical Center in Daly City. Photo: Guy Wathen, The Chronicle

And Goldman continues to work with voice students from various backgrounds. She leads “Finding Your Voice” workshops at tech companies and startups, where she uses her singer-songwriter toolkit to help executives develop leadership skills, enhance communication and jump-start creativity.

She is producing an album for another one of her private voice students, who is also — coincidentally — terminally ill.

“He’s a 55-year-old brilliant engineer who has always played music for the love of it in his living room,” she says, noting she can’t disclose his name because some of his family members do not yet know about his illness. “It’s one of the best records I ever heard.”

Unlike Dalton, he still has his voice and is working on songs that Goldman describes as full of character and attitude, kind of like Lou Reed meets Tom Petty.

Working so closely with Dalton, as a mentor and friend, Goldman says, has given her a deeper appreciation for her craft.

“It’s reshaped my whole understanding of why I’m here and why I’m alive,” she says. “My role is to help people through music. This is why I’m here.”